TOKYO — Japan's Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama Tuesday asked his visiting Australian counterpart Kevin Rudd to rein in activists disrupting Japan's annual whale hunt, describing their actions as "sabotage."

Japan's whaling fleet left for its annual Southern Ocean hunt in waters south of Australia last month. Japan uses a loophole in an international moratorium that allows killing whales for scientific research.

Militant environmental activists of the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society have set out to disrupt the hunt and are this year using a futuristic powerboat which holds the record for the fastest world circumnavigation.

Hatoyama told Rudd that the Sea Shepherd actions threaten the safety of the whaling fleet and its crew and requested Australia take appropriate action, according to a Japanese foreign ministry statement.

The statement suggested that Rudd again threatened legal action against Japan over the hunt of the sea giants if "a diplomatic resolution proves difficult," echoing similar remarks he made last week in Australia.

Canberra has threatened to haul Japan before the International Court of Justice or the International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea. In a radio show last week, Rudd said: "I've said that before, I'm serious about it."

But Hatoyama retorted that Japan's whaling activities complied with international law.

The centre-left Australian leader made the remarks during a brief stopover in Japan on his way to UN climate change talks in Copenhagen.

Japan's Foreign Minister Katsuya Okada last week defended whaling and asked Australia to understand that it is part of Japan's heritage.

http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5gXb1En4K-YEq48zuJ4PRctarqp3A

Hatoyama retorted that Japan's whaling activities complied with international law

Prime Minister Kevin Rudd has reissued a threat to Japan to cease whaling or else face legal action.

It comes as Japan's new government confirmed on Thursday it had no plans to stop its so-called scientific whaling expeditions.

With Japanese boats already in the Southern Ocean on their annual whaling hunt, Mr Rudd labelled the announcement another obstacle to negotiations.

He reiterated the Australian government would seek legal action if a diplomatic agreement could not be reached.

"We don't accept Japan's premise in terms of so-called scientific whaling," he told Fairfax Radio Network on Friday.

Australia would take international legal action if Canberra could not resolve the matter diplomatically with Tokyo.

"I'm serious about it."

Mr Rudd confirmed there were no plans to use Australian boats to monitor whaling this season, because their only purpose last time was to gather evidence to support a future court case.

The opposition says it is time to set a deadline for legal action.

"(The government) promised before the election they would take Japan to the international court of justice," environment spokesman Greg Hunt told ABC Television.

"They must set a deadline for Japan to cease whaling and carry through their promise."

http://news.smh.com.au/breaking-news-national/japan-could-face-court-on-whaling-rudd-20091211-knbz.html

JAPAN'S new government will not review its whaling policy and there is no likely lessening of support for the controversial program, Foreign Minister Katsuya Okada has made clear.

Mr Okada dispelled Australian hopes the Democratic Party of Japan-led government would cut so-called scientific whaling, which resumes in weeks in the Southern Ocean, part of which Australia claims as an economic zone and whale sanctuary.

"We do not think there is a need for a policy review," Mr Okada said yesterday, in the government's first categorical public statement on whaling.

Kevin Rudd is expected in Tokyo next week to launch with Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama a report from the International Commission on Nuclear Non-proliferation and Disarmament.

Sponsored by Canberra and Tokyo and chaired by former foreign ministers Yoriko Kawaguchi and Gareth Evans, the commission was cited by Mr Okada as an example of Australia-Japan co-operation.

Not everything in the report would be accepted by governments, he said, but it would be an important document for Australia-Japan positioning on nuclear disarmament policy.

Mr Okada expressed support for the Japan-Australia free trade agreement negotiations, which had been called into question by the DPJ election manifesto's protectionist tone on farm imports.

Under the previous government, Japanese negotiators sought to remove Australian farm exports from the talks, but Mr Okada suggested yesterday there was room for compromise if Australia gave ground on vehicle industry protection.

"Australia-Japan bilateral relations are very important and we welcome our economic relationship becoming even closer in the future," he said in an interview.

"Both sides have to be more realistic and have give-and-take."

At the Copenhagen climate summit that Mr Rudd and Mr Hatoyama attend next week, "both countries should co-operate and try to engage more the US, China, India" to achieve emissions reduction targets.

On the whaling question, Mr Okada was unswerving, and he urged cultural understanding.

"We should try to discuss this issue in a calm, not emotional way. Because our ancestors, we have a tradition in Japan where we have been eating whalemeat.

"It would be a different story if it were endangered species . . . on the verge of extinction. But if not, I think the average Japanese would like to consume whalemeat into the future."

A summer of confrontation looms again between the Japanese fleet and anti-whaling campaigners, who have in recent seasons disrupted its operations and strained the close relations between Tokyo and Canberra.

Two vessels operated by the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society headed south from Australia this week to confront the whalers, who will hunt up to 935 minke whales and 50 fin whales.

Since the international uproar in 2007, the Japanese fleet has not gone after 50 humpbacks allowed by the seasonal quota Tokyo grants itself under the scientific whaling clause of the international agreement that otherwise bans commercial hunting.

Hopes had been raised the new government might restrict the whaling fleet's operations, which are funded by whalemeat sales and government subsidies.

Government MPs on a budget waste-cutting committee last month recommended freezing new loans by the Overseas Fisheries Co-operation Fund, which had lent Y2.55 billion (about $31.6 million) to the whaling program in 18 months, with another Y2.4 billion pending.

The MPs received documentation from the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries about amakudari (senior bureaucrats getting jobs with companies and agencies they previously supervised).

The DPJ is committed to eliminating amakudari, but Mr Okada described as "exaggeration" an implication the practice was widespread in the whaling industry. "There might be some, but it is not my understanding there are many," he said.

Followed by Lady GaGa's "Poker Face" non-stop until entire fleet commits suicide.

http://www.nisnews.nl/public/281109_1.htm

THE HAGUE, 28/11/09 - The militant environmental organisation Shea Shepherd is allowed to continue to sail under the Dutch flag. Transport State Secretary Tineke Huizinga has rejected a complaint from Japan.

The ship, the Steve Irwin, had a confrontation in the waters of Antarctica last February with Japanese whalers, after which Tokyo complained to the Netherlands. The activists were said to have thrown butyric acid, but Huizinga told the Lower House on Friday that both parties were guilty of infringing international maritime law.

The cabinet announced last summer that the certificate of registry law would be changed. But Huizinga wrote on Friday that the cabinet is not planning to withdraw the Steve Irwin's registry of nationality on the basis of the incident on 6 February. Shea Shepherd can continue to sale and demonstrate under the Dutch flag, providing this remains within the boundaries of national and international laws, according to the state secretary.

The Japanese premier brought the matter up a month ago with Premier Jan Peter Balkenende when Balkenende was on a visit to Japan. Balkenende stressed that the Netherlands does not agree with the Japanese views on whaling. Japan officially describes this as scientific research.

A worldwide alliance of environmental and consumer organisations today called on the Japan’s new government to take urgent action to stop the hunt of toothed cetaceans and ban the sale of contaminated whale, dolphin and porpoise products for human consumption in Japan.

Japan sets quotas for around 20,000 toothed cetaceans (dolphins, porpoises and toothed whales) to be caught in Japanese coastal waters each year, with the products sold across Japan. Feeding at the top of the ocean food chain, these animals are highly contaminated with mercury, polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) and other toxic substances.

The highly acclaimed documentary ‘The Cove’ has recently put the spotlight on Japan’s controversial dolphin hunts in Taiji with unprecedented Japanese media coverage. However, most reports have failed to mention the levels of mercury typically found in dolphin and other toothed cetacean products. For decades scientists have found alarmingly high levels of mercury and other pollutants in cetacean products on sale in Japan. Concentrations in some samples have exceeded Japan’s own safety limit for mercury by up to 5,000 times, putting consumers at serious risk.

Clare Perry of the Environmental Investigation Agency (EIA) said: “People in Japan are not aware that around 15,000 dolphins, porpoises and small whales are killed in Japan’s coastal waters each year for food products. Some of these animals are so polluted that experts have suggested that just one small meal could cause acute mercury poisoning. Legislation to stop the hunts and ban the sale of contaminated cetacean products is urgently required.”

Long-term exposure to mercury is known to cause neurological disorders (with impacts on reaction time, attention span, language and memory), an increased risk of Parkinson’s disease, arteriosclerosis, immune subsystem suppression, and hypertension. Threats to children include autism, Asperger’s Syndrome and Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) – despite this, toothed cetacean products are still distributed to some schools in Japan as part of the obligatory school lunch programme.

Sakae Hemmi of the Japan based NGO Elsa Nature Conservancy said: “Our latest research indicates that 90% of people are not sufficiently informed about the high levels of toxic substances in dolphin products. Until legislation exists to ban the sale of contaminated cetacean products, retailers need to put warning labels on all whale, dolphin and porpoise products.”

Japan’s National Institute for Minamata Disease (NIMD), an offshoot of the Environment Ministry, has recently collected more than 1000 hair samples from citizens of Taiji to analyse the mercury content, with initial results indicating significantly higher levels than the national average. Leading Japanese magazine AERA commented that the examination failed to include standard established tests for Minamata disease and questioned the ability of the Environment Ministry to carry out an independent study.

An open letter from the alliance of organisations, which includes more than ten Japanese consumer and food safety groups, calls on Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama and his Minister of Fisheries to refrain from setting any future catch quotas for toothed cetaceans. The letter further calls on the Ministry of Health to prohibit the sale of polluted cetacean products and the newly established Consumers Affairs Agency to expedite the necessary action and legislation.

Evidence of the contamination of toothed whale, dolphin and porpoise products in Japan is widely available, including the following publications:
 
Endo, T., Hotta, Y., Haraguchi, K., and Sakata, M. 2003. Mercury Contamination in the Red Meat of Whales and Dolphins Marketed for Human Consumption in Japan. Environ. Sci. Technol., 2003, 37 (12), pp 2681–2685. Available at http://pubs.acs.org/doi/abs/10.1021/es034055n

Poisonous Policies – Japan’s failure to stop the sale of polluted whale, dolphin and porpoise products. Available in Japanese and English at http://www.eia-international.org/campaigns/species/cetaceans/reports/

Toxic Menu – Contamination of whale meat and impact on consumers’ health. Available at www.prowildlife.de/sites/default/files/toxic menue_lowres.pdf

Mercury Contamination is Threatening Our Dining Table –An Investigative Report. Available in English and Japanese, www.elsaenc.net/

Link to AERA magazine article (subscription) -  http://www.aera-net.jp/latest/backdetail.html?id=111

Link to open letter (English) – http://www.eia-international.org/files/reports187-1.pdf

Link to the open letter (Japanese) - http://www.eia-international.org/files/reports188-1.pdf

Read our reports

France says taking legal action against whaling is a "good idea" – although Australia seems lukewarm.

Labor went to the last election promising to take Japan to the International Court of Justice to stop whaling. Two years on and no action has been taken.

The French Government's environment ambassador, Laurent Stefanini, said France and Australia were working closely on whaling. He supported taking steps towards legal action, possibly by a group of countries acting together.

"It takes time ... but it's a good idea," Mr Stefanini told AAP in Paris.

"I think to continue to wage a campaign, to harass in some way, that's not a bad thing," he said.

READ FULL ARTICLE HERE http://www.news.com.au/story/0,27574,26335047-23109,00.html

The anti-whaling vessel Steve Irwin has anchored off Fremantle as its crew prepares to leave WA for Antarctic waters in December.

Each year, crew members with conservation group Sea Shepherd take part in a controversial military-style battle to disrupt  Japanese whalers. The Steve Irwin will berth at Fremantle Harbour’s C Shed from November 8, and the public will be able to view the ship and talk with crew members on Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays.

The vessel will then leave port on December 7,  bound for a six-month Antarctic voyage.

In February, protesters claimed Japanese whalers attacked them with long-range noise weapons that can cause deafness and vomiting.

Japanese whalers use explosive tipped harpoons to shoot about 1000 whales each year.  The whales are winched from the ocean and electrocuted before being sold as meat.

Japanese whalers claim the practice is part of a scientific research program.

In 1986 an international moratorium on whaling was introduced allowing lethal research to take place.

Steve Irwin captain Paul Watson has been criticised in the past for the Sea Shepherd's tactics,  which include trying to disable commercial whaling vessels.

But Captain Watson says he wants to expose and confront illegal activities in the high seas.

http://www.oceansentry.org/lang-en/menu-news/menu-marine-mammals/2349-anti-whaling-campaigners-prepare-to-disrupt-japanese-fleet.html

And they want to talk about insensitivity!!!!!!!!!!!!!??????  

TOKYO — Japan's Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama has revealed he dislikes whale meat, a newspaper reported Saturday, in an unusual confession for the prime minister of a country that defies Western criticism of whaling.

"I hate whale meat," Hatoyama said during a meeting with his visiting Dutch counterpart Jan Peter Balkenende on Monday at the prime minister's office, the Sankei Shimbun reported.

The Netherlands is one of several anti-whaling countries that allows the radical environmental group Sea Shepherd Conservation Society to register a vessel in the country.

The group's activists have repeatedly harassed Japanese whaling vessels in Antarctic waters. During the last hunt a Sea Shepherd vessel collided with a whaling ship, sparking allegations that the group was behaving irresponsibly.

Despite Hatoyama's reported dislike of whale meat, however, he urged Balkenende to take action against the group over its attacks on Japanese whalers in the Antarctic, government officials said.

Japan hunts whales by using a loophole in the 1986 moratorium on commercial whaling that allows "lethal research" on the creatures, but makes no secret of the fact that the meat often ends up on dining tables.

Tokyo often accuses Western critics of insensitivity toward its culture and heritage.

Hatoyama's centre-left government, which took office in October, has deviated little from the pro-whaling policies adopted by the previous administration, which had traditionally close ties with farmers and fishermen.

http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5gWYhjmdlQvnc2Dk5fAAVqqAY2Gsw

Hatoyama's government has deviated little from the pro-whaling policies of the previous administration

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Phillip J. Clapham who directs research on large whales at Alaska Fisheries Science Center reported to the Society of Marine Mammalogy in Quebec that Japanese scientific whaling is without merit and a poor screen for continuing commercial whaling.

In addition he said the Japanese consider whales competition for fish and thus want to cull them.

Scientific whaling was originally designed by the International Whaling Commission (IWC) for small sample size. Nothing like the huge takes of Japan. The IWC Protocol allows sale of whale meat to covers costs.

1982 IWC passed moratorium to start in 1986. Japan immediately began scientific whaling.

Japan says they need to kill whales to study their position in the ecosystem. But it’s really because they think whales eat too many fish – too many of “their” fish.

The total number of whales taken by all nations, including Japan, prior to the moratorium was 2100 from 1952 – 1986. Total taken by Japan since 1986 is 12,581 whales and counting. So after the moratorium the number of whales killed skyrocketed due to Japan’s so-called scientific whaling.

The original scientific whaling self-awarded quota started at 300, went to 442, then 852. Japan is now hoping to take humpbacks and has taken fins.

Japan has also taken 200 minkes in Northern Pacific.

The argument that whales “eat too many fish” is preposterous. Not all whales eat fish – most in Antarctica eat krill.
There are so few whales today compared to prewhaling that this idea of whales consuming all the fish is nonsense.
Main predation on fish is other fish.

If you remove top predators from a system you disrupt the system. The real problem is human overfishing.

Japan said Minkes were eating too much krill to allow the blues to recover. So they justified killing minkes.

Then they said the minkes were victims and that humpbacks are driving the minkes out of business. So they now want to kill humpbacks. Anything that justifies their desires.

Clapham told the meeting of nearly 1,000 marine mammal scientists that after 18 years there is no valid scientific data from Japan’s work nor has Japan integrated its work into that of other studies.

Today there are far better non-lethal alternatives to study whales.

A highly interesting turn of events is that Australia will start a Southern Ocean Research Partnership that will employ no lethal methods and will be tied in to other scientific work. What effect will this have on the Japanese Antarctic Whaling fleet operating in the same waters? 

I cannot for the life of me understand the Australian Governments failure to enforce the law against the Japanese Government and end the illegal action in the hunting of whales within the whaling sanctuary.I suppose it must be for trade reasons.When will the Australian and New Zealand Govenments come to understand that it needs a firm hand with a no punches pulled attitude to get them to stop.The Japanese people put a great deal of faith in saving face and despise weakness in others.The Japanese Government and their Whaling fleet are the scourge of the Oceans.The damage that they are doing to their nations International reputation is immense. I do not on principle purchase any Japanese goods or products and I urge all of you to do the same.I fear that the only way to get them to stop their slaughter is to hit them where it hurts most,In their pockets.

Japan whalers 'to target Aussie waters'

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.. © 2009 AAP